A piste grooming apparatus of this type is known from EP 0 674 734 B1. The known piste grooming apparatus is provided for rear attachment to a track-laying vehicle for grooming snow pistes. The known piste grooming apparatus is provided for attachment to the rear of a track-laying vehicle for grooming snow pistes. The piste grooming apparatus has a two-part cutting shaft arrangement which is accommodated in an impact housing which is likewise in two parts. The impact housing is arranged on a cutter support in the manner such that it can pivot about a pivot axis extending transversely with respect to the direction of travel in order to permit raising and lowering of the cutting shaft arrangement. The pivot axis for the impact housing and the cutting shaft arrangement is located—as seen in the normal direction of travel of the track-laying vehicle—in front of the cutting shaft arrangement, and therefore the cutting shaft arrangement and the impact housing are dragged by the cutter support and therefore also by the track-laying vehicle to which the cutter support is coupled. In addition, a smoothing mechanism is provided on the cutter support behind the cutting shaft arrangement—as seen in the normal direction of travel of the track laying vehicle, which smoothing mechanism can be changed in terms of how it rests on the snow surface by means of at least one adjusting cylinder.
It is the object of the invention to provide a piste grooming apparatus of the type mentioned at the beginning which enables the quality of the prepared piste surface to be further improved.